can you use a firewire HD on two comps simultaneously

[anubis13]

I have recently peiced together a second rig for video only. i have a belkin firewire hub that i use for my two maxtor 120 gig external and my canopus advc-100. it would be cool to run another firewire cable to my first rig and be able to use the two external drives on both systems at the same time. kind of like a network drive

has anyone ever tried something like this?
is it possible?

[Ripper2860]

No. The filesystem will corrupt if 2 PC's attempt to access the same disk at the same time. One PC mounting the Filesystem at a time should work, but both simultaneously will not. You need some type of mechanism for file locking and arbitration such as that provided by servers, NAS devices and even basic Windows file sharing or if at a block level, you need the ability to carve the disk into LUN's and mask LUN's from each "host".

** Unless, of course you are running a server cluster!! **

If you have a NIC in each PC, you could just network the 2 PC (even a cross-over cable between the 2 w/o a hib or switch will work) and share the drive off of one of the PC's via a Windows File sharing.

[anubis13]

so technically i could hook up the HDs in the manner i stated before but i should not try to write or retrieve info from the drives with both compa at the same time.
could i, in theory, take turns with the comps
or will the fact that they are both on the same line cause corruption.

i already have a router but 400 mbps is better than 100

[rallynavvie]

Network your computers with a FireWire cable for faster throughput, or get GbE all around.

[Ripper2860]

I think the mere act of having the drives mounted and visible on 2 PC's simultaneously would cause corruption.

[anubis13]

thanks

[ofbarea]

I think the mere act of having the drives mounted and visible on 2 PC's simultaneously would cause corruption.

Two PC's and a firewire HD could all be connected to the same firewire but, but only one of the two PC's will be able to mount the disk, thus corruption is not possible in this configuration. Again If you are using An Offord 911 firewire case upgrade to the latest firmware.

[ViRaL1]

If your Maxtor is USB AND Firewire, you can always get one of these...

http://www.linksys.com/hdd/

Otherwise I'd recommend GbE as well, just hook it up to a single machine and share it.

[anubis13]

If your Maxtor is USB AND Firewire, you can always get one of these...

http://www.linksys.com/hdd/

Otherwise I'd recommend GbE as well, just hook it up to a single machine and share it.

i like that linksys thing. unfortunately i'm saving my pennies for a canon XL1.
i already have a router and 2 nics at 100 mps and my two external HDs are regular ata 133 in off the shelf external enclosures. i can't buy anything new. although i have a maxtor 80 gig in the audio pc and a WD raptor 74 gig in the video pc. the other two HDs are hooked up to the video pc via the belkin firewire hub. i thought it would be cool to buy one firewire cable and share the two externals with the audio pc

[gastorgrab]

Anyone remember this post;

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=203514&highlight=

[anubis13]

Anyone remember this post;

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=203514&highlight=

nice gastorgrab


i missed that one. guess i was searching for HD stuff too hard. thanks

[rallynavvie]

That works because FireWire can be used as a network and its cards are more like host adapters than controllers. The card will act as a hub of sorts when the computer is powered on. If you disabled FireWire networking and/or your network bridge you may have troubles doing it that way.